The British Associations visit to Montreal, 1884: Letters

The British Association's visit to
Montreal, 1884: Letters

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The British Association's visit to
Montreal, 1884: Letters, by Clara Rayleigh Copyright laws are
changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for
your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other
Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Title: The British Association's visit to Montreal, 1884: Letters
Author: Clara Rayleigh
Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6876] [Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on February 6,
2003]

Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
BRITISH ASSOCIATION'S VISIT ***

Produced by Joshua Hutchinson, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and
the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. This file was produced from
images generously made available by the Canadian Institute for
Historical Microreproductions.

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION'S VISIT TO MONTREAL, 1884.
LETTERS BY CLARA LADY RAYLEIGH,
Printed for Private Circulation.

INTRODUCTION.
THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION.
(Reprinted from The Times, 1884)
It seems early to begin to speak of the arrangements for the next
meeting of the British Association, but it is a far cry to Montreal, and a
proportionately long start must be made before the final leap is taken.
So heartily have the Dominion Government and the Canadian savants
entered into the preparations that everything is ready; all the presidents,
vice-presidents and secretaries of sections have been selected; all
arrangements made with steamship companies and American railways;
all excursions have been planned, and all possible routes provided for;
instructions of the most detailed kind have been drawn up for the
guidance of members; nothing has been left, indeed, except what
depends on contingencies of time and place, so that Professor Bonney
and his legion of officials may at any moment take up their
portmanteaus and walk on shipboard. All this forwardness and
completeness are largely due to the zeal of the High Commissioner, Sir
Charles Tupper, and his energetic and obliging secretary, Mr. Colmer.

When the decision was come to at Southampton to hold the meeting of
1884 in Canada there was widely expressed disapproval of the step, and
doubt as to its legitimacy; but the prospect of entertaining the upper
thousand of English science has evidently so greatly gratified our
Canadian brothers that even the most stiff-necked opponent of the
migration must be compelled to give in if he has a shred of good nature
and brotherly feeling left. There are doubtless a few grumblers who
will maintain that the Montreal assembly will not be a meeting of the
British Association; but after all this Imperial Parliament of Science
could not be better occupied than in doing something to promote
science in one of the most important sections of the British dominions.
Indeed, since some maintain that so far as this country is concerned it
has almost ceased to have a _raison d'etre_, might it not extend its
functions and endeavour to exercise the same effective influence on the
promotion of science in other parts of the Empire as it has undoubtedly
done in the past in the Mother Country? It can scarcely hope ever to
hold a meeting either in Australia or India, nor even, we fear, in South
Africa; but there are other means Which it might adopt more
appropriately than any other body to encourage the progress of science
in these parts of the Empire, and make accessible to the public
interested in it the good work which is being done, at least in some of
the Australian colonies. In Canada itself there are several important
scientific societies; but so far as we know, they have no common bond
of union. Seeing that there is already an efficient American Association,
we should not advocate the formation of a separate Canadian body; but
possibly the Montreal meeting might be able to do something to
federalise the separate Canadian societies. We suggested some years
ago that the Association might do such a service to the numerous local
societies in this country, and we are glad to know that the suggestion
has borne fruit, and that already